Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Autumn Holidays


We made the most of our second week of holidays. The boys love to do the bridge to bridge bike ride with a milkshake break along the way. We tried other circuits and this one is always the most fun. 



We saw Zootopia and The Jungle Book at Limelight. 


William learnt how to use a light saber from a real Jedi and we had a delicious lunch at The Noodle House in Dickson.


There were dress ups and Nerf wars when things were quiet!






William came home with a big smile on his face from the first day back at school today AND a 3rd place ribbon for the cross country.


Then everyone helped to dehydrate some apples that we hand picked from the Tanbella Orchard on the weekend. Yum!


Saturday, April 16, 2016

Australian Reptile Park


We stopped by the Australian Reptile Park on our way home. The galapagos turtle was my favourite animal. He was very inquisitive and friendly. Jack and Stu loved the deadly and dangerous show and saw the tiger snake being milked. Jack said the Komodo dragon was walked around on a lead!







Beach Time


The gang rode around in circles at the caravan park from 8am and they held a disco on the last night on the beach volley ball court.



There were hundreds of little silver fish swimming through this beach and they even found a small cuttle fish. The boys played in the water for hours until Stu arrived with Uncle Bob's famous fish and chips.



Amazingly they still had energy for a paddle on the canoes in the afternoon. William was quite impressed with his ability to paddle from the front. "I must be good because it's my first time," he said.











Fishing at Port Stephens



The fishermen were up at the crack of dawn on their all day chartered fishing trip. I was a bit concerned when I got a text from Stu around 11am to say he was the only one who hadn't caught anything. Thankfully everyone decided to share the haul and there was plenty of snapper to feed the 17 hungry people. 



Simon caught the biggest snapper but he also threw up the most over the boat. Poor Simon!




It rained and it poured all day on Tuesday so we played board games for a while. There was a break in the rain, long enough for the boys to throw a few lines out. The kids were happy with their catches which were all thrown back. Vegetarian Bethany was a bit conflicted with fishing and wanted to name every fish she caught. 


William loved Majong and was actually quite good at reading the Chinese characters.



On Thursday the girls took off to the day spa while the boys went to Fighter World. I can't say enough just how much I NEEDED this time. It went by very quickly but I feel like my batteries have been completely recharged. Juliette has the best ideas!


After relaxing all day at the Spa we decided to go for a Koala walk. We didn't see any koalas this time but there were quite a few birds to see.



Trail Ride


The Sahara Trail Ride was the best thing we did all week. You could not wipe the smile off my face the whole time and the hour went by in a flash. I was so proud of Jack for jumping straight on the horse without any fear. He rode a horse named Jack who was 8 years old!


Drew led the ride and clearly loved the experience.




William was on _________ who was a bit slow behind me but he knew exactly what to do and soon caught up. Rohan's horse was a bit of trouble and kept wandering off to eat the leaves and grass. Rohan was perfectly matched with his horse and managed to pull him back onto the path each time. Sam accidently took over a couple of times while Rohan's horse was munching away and Sam managed to get his horse back into line too. They were all so confident and proud when they got off.


Lemon Tree Passage


It was an absolutely perfect day when we arrived at Lemon Tree Passage. The kids immediately jumped into the pool. 

The best part about being in the caravan park was having their friends a short walk away. There was an abundance of things to do at the park too. Jumping pillow, put-put golf, tennis, canoes, table tennis and that's just to name a few.